BORE CALLS FOR HALT TO COUNCIL PAY REVIEW

16-11-2007

Birmingham Labour leader Sir Albert Bore has called for an immediate freeze of the Council's controversial pay and grading review. He's accused the ruling Lib Dem/Tory coalition of being dishonest in its presentation of the figures, and says that many more workers will be worse off than has been admitted.

Letters notifying staff of their new salaries have been distributed this week, and Bore says his angry outburst has been provoked by simply walking around the Council House, "where you can't walk down a corridor without someone telling you how much they are going to be losing.

"One person will tell you 'I'm losing £4,000' someone else will say they are £10,000 down. I know one person who's salary is being cut by £17,000.

"Morale is so bad the whole thing should be suspended so that we can have another look."

The Council's official stance is that the vast majority of its employees will either be better off than they are now, or their wages will stay the same.

That's disputed by Bore who said, "I think they are not being honest about this."

He cites as evidence refuse collectors whose bonuses - like those of other workers across the Council - are being scrapped.

Their new basic salary will be higher than before, allowing bosses to put them in the "improved pay" bracket. Yet in reality, without the bonuses ("earned over 20 years by productivity improvements" says Bore) they'll actually take home less.

The Labour leader also dismisses the Council's computerised job evaluation exercise as a "desktop exercise" aimed at eliminating the subtle nuances of individual jobs, and making it easier to lump all workers into just seven new pay bands.

Other authorities going through the same process have created 12 or 13 grades.

Bore believes Birmingham's policy is prompted by a desire to keep a cap on the overall wage bill.

"To introduce equal pay for equal work, other councils like Solihull have accepted the fact that it's going to cost them money. But Birmingham have decided they can't afford to carry it forward" he says.

"There are only two ways to address that. Either cut the numbers in your workforce or cut take home pay. They've fixed the system to make sure the wage bill doesn't go above a certain ceiling.

"Workers doing a whole range of jobs are all being lumped together in one band.

"Some people may have been overpaid in the past, but that's no excuse for dealing with so many ordinary staff in this way.

"The sort of people who are complaining now are the kind of people who are not normally militant."

Are you a Birmingham Council worker with a pay story to tell? Contact editor@thestirrer.com